Ecological Momentary Gratitude Intervention Produces Immediate Mood Effects

Indianapolis, IN

While evidence suggests that gratitude practices can enhance happiness, other studies have found that focusing on happiness itself may, in some contexts, decrease happiness levels (Mauss, Tamir, Anderson, & Savino, 2011; Conner & Reid, 2012). We investigated the effects of an ecological momentary gratitude intervention on happiness ratings. Participants (N=152) completed pretest measures and were randomly assigned to one of three groups. All participants were responded to daily prompts and reported their happiness on their iPhones over a 14-day period. The full gratitude group (n=53) received three daily gratitude prompts and one end-of-day gratitude intervention. The control group (n=51) received three daily prompts and an end-of-day question about how they spent their time. The partial gratitude group (n=48) responded to the same in-the-moment prompts as the control group and the same end-of-day intervention as the full gratitude group. Analysis of covariance revealed higher in-the-moment mood ratings for the full gratitude group when controlling for levels of depression (p=.02), anxiety (p=.02), stress (p=.02), neuroticism (p=.01), and self-efficacy for happiness (p=.01). Likewise, ANVCOVA demonstrated lower variability on mood scores in the full gratitude group, relative to the control and partial gratitude groups. The implications of the increase in mood in the moment and the stabilizing mood effect from the EMI gratitude intervention will be discussed. Over time, we suspect that increased and more stable mood levels would result in other positive psychosocial outcomes.